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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24764953">A•R•G</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_marie1324/pseuds/impala67'>impala67 (alex_marie1324)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Universe, F/M, Jack Learns About Social Media, Jack-Centric, M/M, Sort Of, YouTube, Youtuber AU, basically OG Charlie never died and jack starts a youtube channel, but they are there, jack Accidentally creates an ARG, the romantic relationships are minor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 11:27:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,704</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24764953</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_marie1324/pseuds/impala67</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“An <b>alternate reality game (ARG)</b> is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions.”</p><blockquote>
  <p>“Charlie, what’s an arg?”</p>
  <p>“It means alternate reality game. Like, when people make elaborate online stories and involve the readers or viewers on it,” she explained. “It’s… kind of an elaborate method of storytelling.”</p>
  <p>“People in my comments are mentioning it a lot...”</p>
  <p>“Oh... Of course they do,” she managed through laughter, shaking her head. “Jack… what we do isn’t believable. People think it's a story.”</p>
</blockquote>or: Jack starts a YouTube channel and accidentally makes an ARG
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>104</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. YouTube</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Welp. conversations with my friend strike again. We got to talking about how Charlie would be such a cool older sister figure to Jack, since they’re both into geeky shit. And then later we discussed jack having social media, specifically YouTube. I started writing it to be a comedic one shot and then realized jack’s life makes a great ARG. and now we’re here. idk fam!!</p>
    </blockquote><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>YouTube &amp; (In)Famous &amp; ARG</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“So,” Charlie turned the laptop to face Jack. “This is YouTube. People upload… well, whatever they want. For the most part,” she said, showing him how to navigate through the videos.</p><p>“Huh. How do I decide what to watch?” Jack asked, furrowing his brows. Charlie shrugged. </p><p>“That’s up to you. Watch a variety and figure out what you like,” she told him. He nodded very seriously. “I like Vsauce, the King of Random, and Geek and Sundry.”</p><p>Jack nodded as if this was some great task. He took the laptop and started sifting through the videos.</p><p>“Well, I’ve gotta get some sleep,” Charlie hummed, standing up from the table. “Maybe a snack first,” she commented to herself as she walked off, leaving Jack to the laptop.</p>
<hr/><p>The next morning, Charlie found Jack exactly where she’d left him. “Wh- did you stay up all night?”</p><p>“I don’t need much sleep,” Jack said nonchalantly, pausing the video he was watching. “I think I’m ready to try YouTubing,” he said brightly.</p><p>“You- uh, yeah, okay,” Charlie nodded, rubbing her face. “Dean made breakfast though, let’s start there,” she motioned to the bunker’s kitchen.</p><p>After everyone had sat down to eat, Jack spoke up. “Do we have any video cameras?” He asked.</p><p>Dean choked for a moment on his food. “Uhh. Nope. No cameras,” he shook his head. It wasn’t that convincing, but Jack was easily fooled.</p><p>“Oh. Okay. Where can I get one?” He then asked, looking between Dean, Sam, and Cas to see if any had an answer.</p><p>“Why?” Sam asked cautiously. “Not to squash your… creativity, but just wondering.”</p><p>“I want to do a YouTube!” Jack stated enthusiastically. “But I need a camera. And I think a microphone?”</p><p>“Internet,” Dean said simply. “It’s got everything. Also, you don’t ‘do a YouTube’,” he sighed.</p><p>“How would you know, old man?” Charlie jumped in, midway through chewing but just needing to take the jab.</p><p>“Shut it.”</p>
<hr/><p>Once his camera and microphone arrived, Jack practically bounced to set it up. He fiddled with some settings for a bit before finally starting to record.</p><p>“Hi,” he waved to the camera. “My name is Jack. Welcome to the bunker!” He moved the camera around to show the bunker behind him. “I live here with my family- Dean, Sam, Castiel, and Charlie,” he explained. “We hunt monsters!”</p><p>He then proceeded to spiel into all sorts of stories about monster hunting, life advice he’d learned from his family, anything that came to mind.</p><p>He moved the video file onto his computer and opened up the free editing service he’d found online. He clipped out the blank spaces in his video, ending up with about twenty minutes of him just… talking! He uploaded it to YouTube, titled ‘Welcome to my channel!’</p>
<hr/><p>After about a week of uploading stories, and one tour of the bunker (that briefly featured Charlie, the only bedroom aside from Jack’s included in the video), Jack started to notice his views picking up. He’d only gotten two or three at first, but now he had a couple hundred, and ten whole subscribers!</p><p>“Charlie, look! People are watching my videos!” Jack said excitedly as he walked his laptop over for Charlie to see. </p><p>“Wow! Not bad, kid,” she nodded as she looked over his analytics. For a fresh channel, he was growing at a decent rate.</p><p>And then it <em> happened. </em> Jack uploaded a video of them preparing for a hunt, with him narrating what all of their supplies were for, and what they thought they were hunting. He followed that up with a vlog of him in the motel room, explaining what they’d since learned by talking to police and locals. He finished off this ‘series’ with a conclusion, a video post-monster hunt tell the viewers that they’d killed a wraith and were heading back to the bunker now.</p><p>It was these three videos that <em> blew up </em>. Absolutely took off, going from his usual couple hundred to a couple thousand to a hundred thousand and before he knew it, the videos combined had half a million views. He had no idea what it was about these videos that drew so much attention.</p><p>He scrolled through some of the comments, which left him even more confused. People were speculating over the veracity of his stories, as well as wondering if this was an ‘ARG’. He had no idea what that even meant.</p><p>“Charlie, what’s an arg?” He asked her after reading the comments. </p><p>“Do you mean an ARG?” She questioned, pronouncing each letter as an acronym.</p><p>“Maybe…?”</p><p>“It means alternate reality game. Like, when people make elaborate online stories and involve the readers or viewers on it,” she explained. “It’s… kind of an elaborate method of storytelling.”</p><p>“People in my comments are mentioning it a lot,” Jack pouted, not sure why his viewers didn’t enjoy his content.</p><p>“Oh,” Charlie blinked for a moment before laughing. “Of course they do,” she managed through laughter, shaking her head. “Jack… what we do isn’t believable. People think it's a story.”</p><p>“Oh…” Jack frowned. “What do I do?”</p><p>Charlie shrugged. “Keep doing what you’ve been doing. It’s probably best if people don’t know it’s true.”</p><p>And so he did. As he got better at it, he started making his videos more elaborate. He even made a video solely showing some of his powers, and explaining his parentage. The viewers ate it up, and even started asking questions!</p><p>By the end of the month, Jack had twenty-thousand subscribers. To celebrate, he did a Q&amp;A like he’d seen many others do for milestones.</p><p>“Hi everyone!” He waved. “So I decided to answer some of your questions today.”</p><p>He had selected a few questions from the comments, wrote them down on paper, and read them off.</p><p>“‘So what <em> is </em> Castiel? He’s always awake when you’re making late night videos,’” Jack read. “Oh! I guess I never said. Castiel is an angel,” he explained, smiling as if this was completely normal information. And it was, to him. “‘What is your relation to Dean and Sam? Older brothers?’ Ah, no,” he replied thoughtfully. He took a moment before responding; “They’re more like my dads. Along with Castiel, of course!</p><p>“‘What is the bunker?’ It’s the Men of Letters Bunker,” he replied simply. “‘Are ghosts real?’ Yes,” he nodded as he took out the second piece of paper. “‘How old are you?’ Well, two! And a half,” he beamed proudly of that half.</p><p>Once he finished and uploaded the Q&amp;A, his channel had another major explosion. He jumped up to one-hundred thousand subscribers just like that, everyone hanging on to every word. Jack didn’t really understand, because really this was just his life, but he loved the attention either way.</p><p>He decided he liked YouTube.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. ASMR</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Twitter &amp; Investigations &amp; Interview(s) &amp; ASMR</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“What’s ‘twitter’?” Jack asked, looking at Charlie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a social media platform. Lemme guess, comments asking if you have one?” She responded. Jack nodded. “Here, I’ll help you set one up,” she gestured for him to slide the laptop over to her. She tapped away for a few minutes before sliding it back. “There. You officially have a Twitter. You just post short thoughts or even promote new videos on here.”</span>
</p><p>Jack nodded slowly, scrolling through the interface. He clicked on things and slowly worked out how to use Twitter. His first tweet simply read ‘Hi!’ with a waving emoji.</p><p>
  <span>Just like his YouTube channel, his Twitter started to gain traction. He posted a lot of brief stories, ones that weren’t long enough for a video, as well as some pictures.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>The first time a bigger channel talked about Jack’s was about three months into him posting. He’d tried to keep a consistent schedule of posting a video at least once a week, revealing more and more about his life, and eventually it caught more attention.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a channel called Nightmind that first made a “deep dive” analysis. Jack didn’t watch it, because it still bothered him a little bit that people thought he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>lying</span>
  </em>
  <span>, but Charlie did. She thought it was funny, entertaining even, to hear someone oh-so-seriously speculate about where the story was going.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my god. He thinks your dad is going to come into the story,” she said to Jack, shaking her head. “If only he knew. He’s also talking at length about the lore around angels and nephilim. He really thinks he’s onto something…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jack furrowed his brows. “Why does he think it’s so… complicated?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Charlie just shrugged. “It’s gonna get you a lot of viewers either way.”</span>
</p><p>And it did. In the next couple of videos he uploaded, he gained a million views. He was glad to have so many fans, at least!</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“Will you be in this video with me?” Jack prodded at Dean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why?” Dean asked, furrowing his brows.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My fans want to get to know you, Sam, and Castiel more since you aren’t in my videos as often,” Jack explained as if it was flawless reasoning. “So I wanted to do a video with each of you!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dean let out a long sigh. “These… fans of yours. They don’t know this is </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> right?”</span>
</p><p>Jack shook his head.</p><p>
  <span>“Fine.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The way Jack beamed was enough to soothe Dean’s apprehension.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ten minutes later, camera set up and microphone ready, Jack started recording.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi everyone!” He waved to the camera. “A lot of you wanted to properly meet some of my family. This is Dean!” He gestured to Dean, who simply waved to the camera.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jack launched into a full blown interview, asking Dean a variety of questions he’d found online as ‘questions to get to know someone’ as well as some questions from his comments.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What motivates you to work hard?” Jack asked, starting at the top of the list.</span>
</p><p>Dean was quiet for a moment. “Saving lives.”</p><p>
  <span>“What would sing at a karaoke night?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Trick question; I don’t sing,” Dean declared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But I’ve heard you sing when you shower-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I plead the fifth.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Jack mumbled, moving onto questions from the comments. “Are you dating anyone?” He read off the question from the comments. Dean scrunched up his nose.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why’s that important?” He grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jack frowned. “The viewers want to get to know you, and more than one asked about this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Skip it,” Dean waved a hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay,” Jack said, though he was confused. He went on to the next question either way. “How old are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dean grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Forty-five,” Dean said in a more clear voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How long have you been hunting?” Jack asked, looking up at Dean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sheesh. Since I was seven?” Dean replied, thinking back. “Yeah. I was seven, Sammy was only one.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The questions continued for a little while longer until Jack had gone through all of the most often asked questions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Later, he approached Castiel to ask him if he’d do a video with him. Cas was less standoffish about it, but still hesitant. Once they started, Jack jumped into the same starter questions he’d asked Dean, followed by some comment questions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s it like living with mostly humans?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Castiel tilted his head a little. “It’s fine. It can be hard to find things to do at night, when they’re all asleep,” he responded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jack nodded in agreement. “It’s also hard not to wake up Dean, he’s a light sleeper. But also a very angry sleeper.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mm,” Castiel nodded noncommittally. “He can be.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>When Eileen moved into the bunker permanently, instead of just coming by to visit occasionally, Jack was eager to introduce her to his fans. He’d very quickly learned sign language- he didn’t have the advantage of just </span>
  <em>
    <span>knowing </span>
  </em>
  <span>it like Castiel did, but he was much quicker to learn. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Would you be in a video?” He asked her. She laughed, sighing a quick ‘yes’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His fans went crazy for Eileen, captivated by her resilient personality and fascinated by the rapid ASL between the two of them. He asked her the same ‘get to know’ questions as he did the others and toured her room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Videos from then on included a lot more Eileen, since she (and Charlie) were the only ones willing to be consistently a part of them. He still documented their hunts as usual, but he also started a series of videos where he’d go through some of the lore from the bunker’s library ASMR-style. Admittedly it left some viewers a bit confused by the shift, but most of them warmed up to it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It did throw some of the ARG investigation channels for a loop, but many of them found new theories and ways these videos contributed to the overall story. Of course, they said, this was just an in-character way of expanding the ARG’s universe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A part of Jack really wanted to convince everyone this was all true, but he took Charlie’s word for it that it was better if they didn’t know.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>‘I read to you about vampires ASMR’</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Doxxed & Found</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Knock Knock &amp; Fin.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>chapter title is supposed to be a pun on “lost &amp; found” but I’m not 100% sure it comes across</p><p>anyway! finale now. wrapping it up.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first (and last) time his channel became a problem was when he tried live-streaming. He set up his camera and turned it on, fiddling around with his computer until the stream was working.</p><p>“Hey guys!” He waved as he saw little names pop up in the chat. He read through some of their comments, some speculating that this had to be ‘pre-filmed’, otherwise how would he be able to ‘do the special fx.’ </p><p>“This is actually live,” he informed them. They then started to spam random sentences, demanding he say them to prove it. He obliged until there was sufficient belief.</p><p>It was then followed by requests for him to show off his powers.</p><p>“I’m not sure Dean would like it if I did that…” he brushed off the comments, but then the chat started calling him a fake. He furrowed his brows, pouting. “Fine, fine,” he said, grabbing a pencil. “Watch!” He moved it around in the air freely, grinning like a child.</p><p>He continued his stream, fulfilling the various requests from viewers to show certain things off. He had no idea what this would do.</p><p>Once it was over, the stream was immediately a subject of mass debate amongst his viewers. On one hand, Jack had proven that he was live by parroting the chat’s weird sentences, but on the other how did he then get all of the effects in? It bothered him, still, that people didn’t believe him.</p><p>Soon enough, though, a small fraction of his audience splintered. Ones who believed this was real. The majority of his audience scoffed at the idea, saying the believers were just too caught up in the ‘reality’ of the alternate reality game.</p><p>Yet it didn’t take much longer after his stream for someone to knock on the motel door. The group was staying there for a hunt nearby, and no one was expecting visitors. Dean peeked through the peephole, always suspicious.</p><p>“It’s some guy,” he said, frowning. “I don’t recognize him…” he cracked open the door slightly. “Can I help you?”</p><p>“Oh my god! You’re <em> Dean! </em>” The guy said excitedly. </p><p>“And you are?”</p><p>“Oh, I’m a fan of Jack’s! So it’s real, right? Cos Jack said you guys were in town for a hunt and you <em> are! </em>” </p><p>“Yeah, okay,” Dean said before slamming the door shut. “Jack!” He said, probably too loud for the relatively small motel room.</p>
<hr/><p>Jack understood why he had to do this. He didn’t like it, but he knew it was for the best. </p><p>He sat down in front of the camera.</p><p>“Hi everyone. So this is going to be my goodbye,” he started, frowning a little. “And, uh, coming clean,” he added, using phrasing Charlie had suggested. “This whole thing has been a story. It’s not real,” he held up his hands in a show of innocence. “It, uh, it’s been fun. But it’s put my family in danger recently. So I have to call it.</p><p>“Thank you all for coming along. Goodbye,” he waved again before getting up to turn off the camera. He dragged his feet as he walked to his desk to edit the video.</p><p>He knew it was for the best- having someone show up at their motel had to be the line. People were too invested. Dean knew best.</p><p>He clicked upload and closed his laptop.</p>
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